Lenganga

In 1906 the government sponsored German peasants to develop small-holdings at Leganga on south eastern Meru between Usa River and Maji ya Chai.

Several Evangelical Lutheran settlers had already become established west of Arusha town when the government decided to settle German refugees from southern Russia. Forty people were recruited at a cost of 7,000 marks each, and each family was given fifty hectares to grow wheat, maize, and vegetables. Far from being experienced peasant farmers, however, the recruits were poorly-educated, unskilled labourers who were unable to adjust to farming under colonial conditions, and the scheme collapsed almost immediately. The first settlers were already on their way home as the last arrived.

The German-Russians were replaced in 1908-9 by Swabian Germans from Palestine in the hopes that they would adapt more readily to colonial conditions, and Leganga soon became known as the Palestiner Reservat'.

The government then opened up larger grants between Nduruma and Usa River and recruited Reich Germans to develop them. By 1910, 89 farms had been allocated to Germans. Of 195,907 hectares of land suitable for crops and livestock in Arusha District, 23,700 hectares, or 12 per cent, was alienated overall, though most of it remained unsurveyed and undeveloped.